Disclaimer: Paramount own all things Trek and I'll trade Shannon for... for... Janeway, I'll settle for Seven though insert wicked grin

Author's Note: We're coming to the end of Messages from Home. Hope you like it!

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Just a little subspace fluctuation....

"Mmm, this is really good," murmured Kathryn Janeway, lifting her fork to her mouth. "You know, you were right."

Chakotay eyed her cheekily, he could think about at least a million comebacks to that brilliant opening, but each of them would ruin the moment. Finally he settled on, "About what?"

"We've been spending too much time in my quarters," she elegantly nudged her fork into the last cube of meat on her plate. "In there," she waved the loaded fork in the direction of her quarters, "It's been much too... too... busy... hectic... active... chaotic... wild."

"A walking thesaurus now, are we?"

"You know what I mean Chakotay," gingerly with her teeth, she drew the meat off the fork. She leaned back in the chair, "You know what I don't understand?" This time she didn't even give him the chance to respond to her question, "How a vegetarian can cook such good meat. I mean, it's amazing."

"I am a man of many talents," he said, walking to the kitchen to bring out a silver tray. He lifted the cover to reveal a coffee cake.

"I'll say," she agreed heartily, "A man of many talents, alright. Let's have it on the couch..."

"Another eight days Kathryn."

"Eight," she echoed, waiting for him to stretch his hand along the back of the couch before settling comfortably into the crook of his arm.

As she bit into her slice of cake, he leaned forward and gave her a kiss.

"Umm, brilliant."

"The cake?"

"No, the kiss, stupid."

Chakotay laughed and drew her closer for another one.

"Um... Captain... erm... Commander, I erm... hate to be interrupting anything, but you'd better get down here."

Kathryn and Chakotay exchanged a glance, from where they were centimetres away from each other.

"I swear," said Chakotay, taking her plate from her and setting it down so heavily on the coffee table, the decorative chocolate coated coffee bean fell off.

"Chakotay..." Kathryn said soothingly as she hurriedly put on the jacket she had discarded earlier, "You know this is what happens if you decide to have a relationship on board a starship.... 70 thousand light years away from home."

"I know, I know."

Kathryn gave him a crooked smile as she rearranged her captain's pips in a straight line, "To think a couple of months ago, you were the one saying that to me." He moved over to help her, brushing her hair out of the way before, slowly readjusting her ranking pips.

"I know, don't tell me you don't get frustrated either."

"I do," she rested her forehead against his chest and he gently massaged her shoulders, "I told you before..."

"And I understood... before. I swear Kathryn, it's just sometimes it gets to me before the rational me has time to take over."

She nodded firmly, "Alright, let's go then."

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"Report Mr. Paris," said Captain Janeway as she descended the last few stairs to the main area of the bridge.

"Captain, we're picking up some sort of signal."

"What sort of signal?" The question was directed at Mr. Kim.

"An SOS."

"Wasn't that one of those things we got when we met the 37s?" asked B'Elanna entering from another door. Apparently, the whole senior staff had been assembled for what – didn't appear to be a threat – yet.

"That is correct, Lieutenant."

"But what's it doing out here?" asked Chakotay, settling back in his Commander's chair. "The 37s are in a completely different part of space."

"Source of the signal?"

"A light year ahead, one minute it wasn't there and then, the next, it was."

"And ships, warp signatures, planets...." Chakotay trailed off.

"Worm holes," Kathryn said what they were all thinking.

"Set a course Mr. Paris, maximum warp."

"Aye Ma'am."

"Even if it was a way back to the Alpha Quadrant," Kathryn leaned over to whisper to Chakotay, "Those signals we used in the early 20th century. It probably leads to the past."

"Could it be a wormhole back to the 37s?"

Kathryn glanced nervously at him, "Couldn't be, they disabled the transmitters before we left. They didn't want other aliens picking it up."

"Approaching the coordinates," said Harry, "Captain – the signal has stopped."

Kathryn straightened in her chair, "On screen," she commanded. "What do you mean it's stopped?"

The Ensign didn't answer.

The bridge was silent for a moment as everyone stared into the deep vast sea of black space, casually speckled with stars here and there.

"According to the sensors Captain, it should be or should have been right in front of us."

"Well, I don't see anything," said Tom, swivelling in his chair to face his Captain.

"It is not logical to assume that just because we cannot see something doesn't mean it is not there."

"Or, wasn't there," corrected B'Elanna.

The bridge fell silent again, as it usually did after one of Tuvok's outbursts of logic. Everyone waited for Kathryn Janeway to do something – say something... to at least react, but she just sat there starring dead ahead.

"Captain," Chakotay whispered leaning over.

She didn't even turn to look at him.

"Kathryn?"

"Something's coming," she whispered.

"What?" He asked. "What's coming?"

She seemed to snap out of it, "Call it hunch, but I think we're supposed to be here. Something's going to happen."

"Captain, this is -"

"-highly illogical, I know, I know. But sticking around for a few moments isn't going to kill us, is it?"

Tom cleared his throat, "Well, you never k..."

"Captain, something's happening, we're picking up the signal again."

Like watching a tennis match, all eyes swivelled back to the screen. There was some sort of fluctuation before them, before it stopped and shifted back into normal space.

"The signal's gone again, Captain."

"Do you think it could be some sort of naturally occurring phenomenon?" asked Captain Janeway, walking over to his console.

Ensign Kim seemed reluctant, "I don't know, Captain. Scans are picking up nothing in front of us, but two seconds ago there were high tachyon emissions."

"It does not seem likely that this is happening without being prompted by men," said Chakotay keying in some buttons on the console he shared with his Captain.

"I concur with that analysis."

"I want to know what's going on," said Kathryn, keying in a couple of numbers into Harry's console. Suddenly, she moved her hand away, "It's happening again," she informed the rest of them.

Sure enough, there appeared to be some distortion in space dead ahead of them. "Maybe it's some sort of message," said B'Elanna.

"Maybe someone's trying to tell us something."

"The only thing we're picking up is an SOS. And that's a call for help. How can we help someone we can't find?" asked Tom.

"Maybe that someone is stuck in the fluctuation, and is trying to get out?" suggested Chakotay.

"Captain, there isn't a steady time interval between the fluctuations. They're random occurrences."

Kathryn nodded, "Senior staff meeting in 5 minutes, this is very odd..." she trailed off, "Very odd and I want some answers."

As the crew on the bridge was replaced, Kathryn walked into her ready room, Chakotay close behind her.

"Shannon Janeway to Captain Janeway."

"Janeway here, what is it Shannon?"

"What is that thing, mum?"

"What thing?"

"That weird fluctuation sort of thing?"

"I don't know... we don't know," said Kathryn, how could her daughter interrupt her when she was on duty? "Is there anything important Shannon?"

"You know when I was travelling through space – looking for Voyager, I'd seen something like this before. Maybe you should check the records on board my shuttle." Kathryn couldn't help thinking Shannon sounded a little nervous.

"We've downloaded them into the computer. If anything similar was happening, we'd know,"

"You have?" Shannon's voice was tense.

"Shannon, you know... "Kathryn paused, before admitting what she really felt, "you know, I don't like mixing you up in this sort of thing. Go back to sleep."

"It's only nine o'clock," grumbled Shannon.

"Either you go to sleep or sit down quietly and do something productive."

"Trying to help Voyager is productive."

"Not when you're only fourteen. Janeway out."

Kathryn exchanged an exasperated look with Chakotay, who was looking through something on her computer.

"Shannon's right, she has seen this before."

"Well, why didn't the computer cross reference."

"Because it wasn't occurring because of high tachyon emissions it was randomly occurring in a wormhole... a wormhole Shannon used to get here."

"She did say something about a wormhole, but it collapsed, didn't it."

"Not according to these readings, it didn't," said Chakotay, turning her laptop to face her.

Kathryn gasped, "I checked those read on board the shuttle when it first came in, it had collapsed."

Chakotay hit another few buttons on the laptop, "According to this, she managed to make it look like the wormhole had collapsed, by falsifying the records on the computer on the shuttle, but what she didn't account for was Voyager being more advanced than her shuttle and correcting the data. She made it look like it was because of a bad accident that the data was lost."

"This doesn't make sense. Why would Shannon hide something like this from us?"

"Captain Janeway to crewman Janeway."

There was no response.

"Computer, locate Shannon Janeway."

"Shannon Janeway is in her quarters."

"Shannon?" Kathryn tapped her com badge again.

"Computer do a skeletal lock on Shannon Janeway and find her location," said Chakotay.

"Shannon Janeway is in shuttle bay two."

"Chakotay," Kathryn gasped, "She's running."

"Computer, beam Shannon Janeway straight to ready room."

"Unable to comply, dampening field around shuttle bay."

"Chakotay to senior staff, report to the bridge."

"Computer seal shuttle bay doors."

"Unable to comply."

"Why?" asked Kathryn. She ran a hand through her hair, why was her daughter doing this? Why?

"Captain," came Tom's voice over the computer, "A shuttle is taking off. It's Shannon's old ship."

Kathryn and Chakotay ran onto the bridge.

"Can you beam her out of there?"

"Negative Captain."

"Tractor beam?" asked Chakotay.

"Negative – Captain she's heading for where the fluctuations were."

"Beam me on board."

"Kathryn, no."

"She's my daughter Chakotay. I've left her too many times before, I'm not going to let her leave me again."

"Captain, we can't get you on board either, shields are up."

"She could be an alien life from, pretending to be Shannon."

"No," whispered Kathryn, "You don't believe that Chakotay."

"Captain a fluctuation is opening."

"Take out her engines; fire a photon torpedo if you have to."

"No effect, the fluctuations seem to be lessening the force of our weapons," stated Tuvok.

"Take Voyager in after her."

"What?" asked Tom and Chakotay in unison.

"Call it a hunch, gentlemen," Captain's mask in place, "But I think I know what's going on and I want Voyager in the fluctuation before it closes. I don't care if we're nose to nose with the shuttle."

As Tom complied, the crew leaned forward, wondering what would happen.

"Kathryn, are you su.."

"I know her Chakotay. She didn't want to go back, that's why her records are fake. Don't you see Chakotay?"

"See that?"

"Shannon didn't want to go back. She didn't like Earth, she wanted to be somewhere with me where I didn't have to be called away suddenly, where I was always there, even if it meant I'd have to be on duty," Kathryn sighed, now her eyes focused on the fluctuation. All this depended on her hunch, she hoped she was right, she hoped Shannon was right. An alien life from pretending to be Shannon... that was what Chakotay had said, please... please let him be wrong. She couldn't be an alien – the doctor had said... it was too late, they were in.

"Captain, we're in a worm hole."

Kathryn breathed a sigh of relief. "Where does it come out?"

"The Alpha Quadrant."

The bridge was silent, "And the shuttle?" Chakotay asked.

"Dead ahead, Commander."

Kathryn smiled as she saw the opening of the subspace fluctuation before her.

Voyager zoomed through the opening, heading for the blue green planet before them.

Kathryn smiled again and exchanged a look with Mr. Paris.

"I have to say, it was an odd situation and I expected lots of planning, thinking and probably collaborating with other species to do this, but ladies and gentlemen – we're home!"

She allowed Chakotay to slip her arm around her.

Suddenly she gasped, "I forgot Shannon."

"Captain, the wormhole disabled out shields, maybe they did with the shuttle's as well."

"Beam her on board."

Shannon materialized on the bridge, she looked panic-stricken. All eyes on the bridge were focused on her; she looked at each of them in turn and then slowly at Chakotay and her mother.

"Oh Shannon," said Kathryn, "Why didn't you tell me?"

Shannon flung herself at her mother and clutched her, her body racking with sobs. "I'm so sorry mother, it's just – I..."

TBC...

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A/N : OK, I know – or at least I think Shannon sounds pathetic – but hey, the trials and tribulations of an innocent genius mind. Please review before you hit the close or back button – thanks! KaYB